in Namibia

Hey there!

So my first post in Namibia! I am in Windhoek, the capital city. It has been a cool experience here so far, if I had to describe the drive in a few words I will say rock, dirt, rock, rock, sand, mountain, rock, mountain, dirt, rock. And that was for two days haha. Nine people, much luggage, endless supplies of snacks, ice tea and water, and lots of sleepiness, one maroon kombi. Three hours waiting to get let into Namibia from South Africa (I was so excited to cross country borders by land, definitely took the excitement out of it) and lots more rocky mountains. Closer to Windhoek we saw springbok and eland (both of which I have eaten) and almost ran over a bunch of baboons crossing the road, but other than that I will have to wait til Etosha National Park, which we will be going to tomorrow.

When I first saw Windhoek, I thought that the multicoloured houses were so cute. And after a few days I thought that this place was just like any other cities, with their nice houses and shopping centres. But after visiting the Beautiful Gates orphanage/daycare centre and this local food centre/makeshift orphanage that was run by one 59-year-old woman out of her own house I realised that there is much poverty here, that the eye cannot easily see. When Beautiful Gates first opened, they surveyed people in the three streets either side of the orphanage and found 109 AIDS orphans in those nine or so streets alone. They have the facilities to look after sixty children, twenty new each year, although they get hundreds of applications. The place is run by both local volunteers and YWAM.

The other place we went to affected me the most, however. This one woman, Pauline, noticed that children would wander the streets picking raw meat that they found in the dirt because they didn't have enough to eat. A lot of the time these children would have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and it is not uncommon to see one grandmother looking after eight grandchildren off her own meagre pension. So she feeds any children that come to her off the streets out of her own house. If a child becomes an orphan or has an alcoholic father who cannot look after them, she will take care of them until she can find a relative or until the situation has gotten better. She also teaches them worship songs, etc (they know "Our God is so Big"! but they call it "Our God is so Great".) We led a kids program all afternoon, it was so much fun. The space was SO tiny and it was so funny singing "Father Abraham" and watching everyone wave their arms and jump around in a circle, bumping into one another. It was pandemonium! Lots more stories that I will love to share in person.

We are leaving for the border area tomorrow, a rural, poor area bordering Angola. We are driving there via Etosha National Park I am so very excited!

Over and out,
Joc

Some photos

yay I'm so welcomed!

V&A Waterfront with the lovely Jonathan, our chauffer (Table Mountain in the background - it was an overcast day)

Our view from The Backpackers - We stayed in the "Giraffe" room (Table Mountain in the background). Yes I am aware that I look incredibly stupid.

District Six Museum - The apartheid days. South Africa's dark history. District Six is an area that was declared a "whites-only area" and all the blacks & coloureds (everyone not all-white) were relocated to townships, that still exist today.

A woman in the townships who sold sheep's heads for a living. Skinned, cooked, YUM. Smells of pork actually, but I doubt I would ever choose to eat it.

Our dinner. Just kidding.

The beautiful children from the shacks area of the townships. They love the smoothness of our hair.

The African Gospel Church in the townships. Humbling.

Hello from Cape Town!

The flights were amazingly hectic, (and hectic in the crazy, stressful, literal sense, the term "hectic" means "cool" or "awesome" here. haha. still getting used to it.) I was so close to missing my Sydney-Joburg flight it wasn't funny. As spoken by the sympathetic guy at Sydney airport into a walkie talkie, "we have a girl here completely in hysterics". I ended up not being able to get onto my Bris-Syd flight (dont wanna go there) so I had to take one an hr later, which gave me an hr and a half from my arrival into Sydney and my departure to Joburg to get off the plane, find my luggage, go from domestic to international terminals (whole other building), check my bag in, get my ticket, go through customs etc etc.

The Joburg-Cape Town one was actually a lot better, although my bag was ripped and broken when I got there. I actually was kinda expecting that, the lady at Joburg airport looked at the bag, then looked at me, then back at the bag, and said to me, "there's nothing breakable, right?" and when I did put my bag through, since I was the last one to get my ticket, instead of putting it through she just said to me, "just dump it on the ground with all the other bags". Haha. But I am here safe and sound, praise the Lord!

We have been driven around by Bernadette's lovely friend from her old church, Jonathan, who picked me up from the airport and drove us around the waterfront yesterday. The famous V&A Waterfront Harbour was really beautiful, lots of cute souvenir shops, and craft markets, and coffee shops, and bookstores. I even saw really cool Andy Warhol pop-art coasters with Nelson Mandela's face. So retro.

Last night we ate at this place called Spur's, this Nando's-esque American Indian restaurat (I'm in Africa I know, but apparently this is where all the local young'uns go). Food here is quite cheap, Berns and I got breakfast and bottomless cups of coffee for R50, about $8.50.

Jet lag is still an issue haha, I have been getting tired at 7pm (3am AEST) and waking up at about 4-5am (almost midday AEST) and not being able to get back to sleep again.

Due to the rainy weather we decided to get a room at the local backpacker's place, as it is easier for us to get around as it is in the city. (We are in the Giraffe room hehe). All the African crafts at the markets and stuff are really cool.

We are leaving to visit the townships in about an hour, and tomorrow we are going to go up Table Mountain and see Robben Island, the prison that Nelson Mandela was at. Tonight we are going to see an African dance show.

I will keep ya posted

seen a pepsi backpack anyone?

ok, so this person (me) had like a million things in their hands to take into the exam right... cus it DID say take all valuables with you... so i decided to put some of the stuff i didnt need into my friend sam's bag.

so after the exam sam walks up to me and i said, "is that your bag?" "yep." it was then that i had realised that i had put all my stuff into SOMEONE ELSES BAG. looked all around, and the bag was gone. yep.

IDIOT

i've had that pumbaa pencil case since i was about eight years old.

first post... coffee

first post and im gonna fill it with boring stuff. its 2:40am and i have two exams today, one in six hours and another in eight and a half hours. its hard to be motived when you're flying to africa by yourself in SIX DAYS.

i think thats all to report on. im not even tired. i went to visit an eritrean family today and they kept giving daniel and i ethiopian coffee. so maybe thats why. twas really strong stuff and the coffee cups are these tiny little things. come to think about it the coffee would be good for all my political science essays. maybe i should get some. but they roast the beans themselves and everything. so probably not. im more of an instant girl myself haha. i drink mozambiqian (or is it tanzanian?) coffee at home YUM. fair trade of course. gotta look after our brothers the cash crop farmers who provide our twice-daily caffeine obsession

white with two sugars! and for some reason my mozambiqian (or tanzanian) instant coffee i make at home in my elephant coffee mug i find much more enjoyable than any cup of coffee i buy in a fancy cafe. go figure.